Images from Quebec high school homework assignment called out as racist
Posted February 2, 2022 5:13 pm.
Last Updated February 4, 2022 9:17 am.
A homework assignment distributed to high school students on Montreal’s south shore is being called racist because it asks them to describe two “gangsters” who resemble racialized people.
George Stetka, the father of a Grade 7 student at Centennial Regional High School in Greenfield Park, Que., says he was shocked when his daughter came home Tuesday with the assignment.
The exercise asks students to describe two “gangsters” – a character resembling a Black woman holding a firearm and a dark-skinned man wearing a bandana and with his pants hanging low.
So, I open up my FB this morning and I'm tagged in this image requesting comment. This is a French text book from a high school on the South Shore of #MTL in 2022 and the second day of #Blackhistorymonth2022 @jfrobergeQc @marleneqcgn @francoislegault @CharetteB @BritHenriques pic.twitter.com/JQx4jDBsT8
— Joel DeBellefeuille (@DeBellefeuille_) February 2, 2022
Education Department spokesman Bryan St-Louis said today in a statement that the images of the homework shared on social media do not allow the department to identify the publisher of the material.
He says the material is unlikely approved by the government and that the department is taking the situation seriously and would investigate.
Centennial’s school board did not immediately return a request for comment.
Joel DeBellefeuille, the founder of Red Coalition – an organization dedicated to end systemic racism in Canada – did some digging and found a website where the image was downloaded from – an online teaching platform from France.
Below is the link to an online teaching platform from France. The same site the image was downloaded from. @CultMTL @BritHenriques @CityNewsMTL @CBCMontreal @mtlgazette @Global_Montreal https://t.co/ePpUfgOrYe pic.twitter.com/0jquxxWLEZ
— Joel DeBellefeuille (@DeBellefeuille_) February 2, 2022
